This study aims at assessing the level of knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) concerning reproductive health (RH) among adolescent college-going girls in the urban and rural areas of Chittagong District, Bangladesh. A college-based cross-sectional study was conducted among college-going girls (N = 792) of four colleges attending Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) classes (eleven/twelve classes) in Chittagong District. Data were collected using a structured and self-administered questionnaire. Chi-square (χ2) and independent-samples t-test were conducted to make the comparison between urban (...) and rural participants. Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS version 24.0. The authors’ interpretation of the findings was also informed by anthropological as well as qualitative considerations. Mothers were reported to be the key informants of reproductive health for the adolescent girls of both urban and rural areas. Besides, urban respondents were more likely than rural respondents (p <.001) to feel comfortable during the discussion on RH with mother/sister/relative; to communicate frequently with their mothers; to discuss RH issues regularly; to have prior knowledge on menstruation. Moreover, this study also found significant differences (p <.05) regarding most of the items addressing RH knowledge, attitude, and practice between adolescent girls in urban and rural areas of Bangladesh due to the existing socio-cultural disparities between the areas of residence. (shrink)

SummaryThis paper examines the role of health knowledge in the association between mothers' education and use of maternal and child health services in Ghana. The study uses data from a nationally representative sample of female respondents to the 2008 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey. Ordered probit regression models evaluate whether women's health knowledge helps to explain use of three specific maternal and child health services: antenatal care, giving birth with the supervision of a (...) trained professional and complete child vaccination. The analyses reveal that mothers' years of formal education are strongly associated with health knowledge; health knowledge helps explain the association between maternal education and use of health services; and, net of a set of stringent demographic and socioeconomic controls, mothers' health knowledge is a key factor associated with use of health services. (shrink)

Genetic knowledge is a civil right and a civil obligation. New genetic knowledge in individual health risk prediction and prevention and new pharmacogenetic opportunities for developing more efficacious individualized drugs broaden human and civil rights for better health and health care. Public health policy has yet to develop and provide programs in genetic information and consultation together with other health risk information and health literacy education. Data availability and genetic knowledge will (...) make citizens more competent partners in health risk management. As with all information, abuse and manipulation of genetic information cannot be excluded; but health education as an essential part of public health services will empower citizens to better care for their own and their families health. Existing cultural and ethical principles, laws and regulations need to be reviewed and modified in order to prevent and fight illegal or immoral use of genetic information. The promotion of genetic knowledge allows for a new model of social contract as health care contract between citizens, health care experts, and society. (shrink)

The knowledge and skills of employees could play a valuable role in organizational success. Organizations seek practices to create a knowledge-sharing culture to take full advantage of individual competencies. However, the knowledge-hiding behavior of individuals is a hurdle in the internal dissemination of knowledge and expertise. It becomes more critical in the case of teaching institutions, where the students are taught and trained. Scholars are now putting their efforts into seeking the antecedents and consequences of (...) class='Hi'>knowledge-hiding behavior. This study also attempts to determine the role of interpersonal distrust as an antecedent of knowledge hiding behavior of music education students. Based on the social exchange theory, the present study attempts to check the association of interpersonal distrust with emotional exhaustion and knowledge hiding. For empirical investigation, this study assumes that interpersonal distrust positively enhances knowledge hiding and emotional exhaustion, respectively. Moreover, the present study also attempts to check the association of emotional exhaustion with knowledge hiding. This study also assessed the mediating role of emotional exhaustion in the relationship between interpersonal distrust and knowledge hiding. This current study also aims to check the moderating role of mental health self-efficacy in the relationship between emotional exhaustion and knowledge hiding. For empirical investigation, the present study collected the data from 310 music learning students of various Chinese universities through a structured questionnaire method using a convenient sampling technique. This study applied partial least square structural equation modeling for empirical analyses using Smart PLS software. The findings of this study revealed that interpersonal distrust does not directly influence knowledge hiding; however, interpersonal distrust has a positive association with emotional exhaustion. The findings also acknowledged that emotional exhaustion positively correlates with knowledge hiding. The results also confirmed that emotional exhaustion positively mediates the relationship between interpersonal distrust and knowledge hiding. Further, the outcomes depicted that mental health self-efficacy negatively moderates the relationship between emotional exhaustion and knowledge hiding. In addition, this study’s findings also serve the literature of knowledge hiding by providing important theoretical and practical implications. (shrink)

Promoting clinicians’ knowledge sharing of appropriate health technology within the integrated care system is of great vitality in bridging the technological gap between member institutions. However, the role of social networks in knowledge sharing of health technology is still largely unknown. To address this issue, the study aims to clarify the influence of clinicians’ social networks on knowledge sharing of health technology within the ICS. A questionnaire survey was conducted among the clinicians in the (...) Alliance of Liver Disease Specialists in Fujian Province, China. Social network analysis was conducted using NetDraw and UCINET, and the quadratic assignment procedure multiple regression was used to analyze the influencing factors of knowledge sharing of health technology. The results showed that the ICS played an insufficient role in promoting overall knowledge sharing, especially inter-institutional knowledge sharing. Trust, emotional support, material support, and cognitive proximity positively influenced knowledge sharing of health technology, while the frequency of interaction and relationship importance had a negative impact on it. The finding extended the research scope of social network theory to the field of healthcare and will bridge the evidence gap in the influence of the clinicians’ social networks on their knowledge sharing within the ICS, providing new ideas to boost knowledge sharing and diffusion of appropriate health technology. (shrink)

This integrative review aims to provide a synthesis of research findings of health-care professionals’ knowledge, attitudes and behaviours relating to patient capacity to consent to or refuse treatment within the general hospital setting. Search strategies included relevant health databases, hand searching of key journals, ‘snowballing’ and expert recommendations. The review identified various knowledge gaps and attitudinal dispositions of health-care professionals, which influence their behaviours and decision-making in relation to capacity to consent processes. The findings suggest (...) that there is tension between legal, ethical and professional standards relating to the assessment of capacity and consent within health care. Legislation and policy guidance concerning capacity assessment processes are lacking, and this may contribute to inconsistencies in practice. (shrink)

Many families worldwide have at least one member with a behavioral or mental disorder, and yet the majority of the public fails to correctly recognize symptoms of mental illness. Previous research has found that Mental Health Literacy (MHL)—the knowledge and positive beliefs about mental disorders—tends to be higher in European and North American cultures, compared to Asian and African cultures. Nonetheless quantitative research examining the variables that explain this cultural difference remains limited. The purpose of our study was (...) fourfold: (a) to validate measures of MHL cross-culturally, (b) to examine the MHL model quantitatively, (c) to investigate cultural differences in the MHL model, and (d) to examine collectivism as a predictor of MHL. We validated measures of MHL in European American and Indian samples. The results lend strong quantitative support to the MHL model. Recognition of symptoms of mental illness was a central variable: greater recognition predicted greater endorsement of social causes of mental illness and endorsement of professional help-seeking as well as lesser endorsement of lay help-seeking. The MHL model also showed an overwhelming cultural difference; namely, lay help-seeking beliefs played a central role in the Indian sample, and a negligible role in the European American sample. Further, collectivism was positively associated with causal beliefs of mental illness in the European American sample, and with lay help-seeking beliefs in the Indian sample. These findings demonstrate the importance of understanding cultural differences in beliefs about mental illness, particularly in relation to help-seeking beliefs. (shrink)

This study explores child health care nurses’ pedagogical knowledge when supporting parents in their parenthood using various teaching practices, that is how to organise and process the content during parent education groups in primary health care. The aim is to identify teaching practices used by child health care nurses and to analyse such practices with regard to Aristotle's three forms of knowledge to comprehensively examine child health care nurses’ use of knowledge in practice. (...) A qualitative methodological design alongside the analysis of video‐recordings was used. The results showed that child health care nurses used four teaching practices: lecturing, demonstration, conversation and supervision. Their use of episteme was prominent, but they also seemed to master techne in combination with episteme during the first three teaching practices. During the conversation teaching practice, the child health nurses rarely succeeded. Consequently, they missed opportunities to identify mothers’ expressed concerns and to act in the best interests of both the mothers and their infants by the use of phronesis. In health care, however, theoretical episteme is superordinate to productive knowledge or phronesis, which also became evident in this study. Nevertheless, more interactive pedagogical practices are needed if more use of phronesis is to become a reality in parent education groups. (shrink)

The Habermasian concept of ‘interest’ has had a profound effect on the characterization of scientific disciplines. Going beyond issues unrelated to the theory itself, intra‐theoretical interest characterizes the specific ways of approaching any science‐related discipline, defining research topics and methodologies. This approach was developed by Jürgen Habermas in relation to empirical–analytical sciences, historical–hermeneutics sciences, and critical sciences; however, he did not make any specific references to health sciences. This article aims to contribute to shaping a general epistemological framework for (...) health sciences, as well as its specific implications for the medical and nursing areas, via an analysis of the basic knowledge interests developed by Habermas. (shrink)

In workplace health interventions, engaging management and union decision makers is considered important for the success of the project, yet little research has described the process of making this happen. A case study of a knowledge-transfer process is presented to describe the practices and processes adopted by a knowledge broker who engaged workplace parties in discussions on research on physical and psychosocial factors important for employee health. The process included one-on-one interactions between the knowledge broker (...) and individuals to explain the research, to build trust and credibility, and to explore the applicability of the research to their work (sense making). It also included facilitated group sessions, where the groups explored how the research could solve problems within the workplace (social construction of knowledge). The workplace context offered multiple opportunities that helped and hindered the flow of research. Nevertheless, this intense, sustained, knowledge-transfer intervention noted conceptual, structural, and political knowledge use. (shrink)

While knowledge represents a valuable commodity, not all forms of knowledge are afforded equal status. The politics of knowledge, which entails the privileging of particular ways of knowing through linkages between the producers of knowledge and other bearers of authority or influence, represents a powerful force driving knowledge development. Within the health research and practice community, biomedical knowledge (i.e. knowledge pertaining to the biological factors influencing health) has been afforded a privileged (...) position, shaping the health research and practice community's view of health, illness and appropriate intervention. The aim of this study is to spark critical reflection and dialogue surrounding the ways in which the politics of knowledge have constrained progress in addressing mental health and illness, one of today's leading public health issues. I argue that the hegemony of biological knowledge represents an ethical issue as it limits the breadth of knowledge available to support practitioners to ‘do good’ in terms of addressing mental illness. Given the power and influence inherent within the nursing community, I propose that nurses ought to engage in critical reflection and action in an effort to better situate the health research and practice community to effectively address the mental health of populations. (shrink)

Summary Knowledge is an important but largely neglected variable in sex education research. This study aimed to develop a measure to assess young people's knowledge about puberty and sexual development, and to examine knowledge in relation to age, gender and school. The main results of the study were that knowledge increased more between age 11/12 and 13/14 than between 13/14 and 15/16, girls knew more than boys at every age, and there were few differences in (...) class='Hi'>knowledge between the four schools involved in the study. The research has a number of implications for sex education in schools. First, it was found that even by age 15?16 some young people lack information which is essential if they are to avoid unwanted pregnancy. Second, it may be that boys and girls need to be taught separately to enable the different needs of each gender to be addressed. Third, young people know more about some aspects of puberty and sexual development than others, and there are particular times when knowledge develops most rapidly. Giving teachers this information could help them to target areas of particular ignorance. The questionnaire developed to assess knowledge proved to be accurate and reliable, and a measure that is straightforward to score and analyse. As such, it has considerable potential for use in the classroom. (shrink)

BackgroundRespecting patients’ confidentiality is an ethical and legal responsibility for health professionals and the cornerstone of care excellence. This study aims to assess health professionals’ knowledge, attitudes, and associated factors towards patients’ confidentiality in a resource-limited setting.MethodsInstitutional based cross-sectional study was conducted among 423 health professionals. Stratified sampling methods were used to select the participants, and a structured self-administer questionnaire was used for data collection. The data was entered using Epi-data version 4.6 and analyzed using SPSS, (...) version 25. Bi-variable and multivariable binary logistic regression analyses were used to measure the association between the dependent and independent variables. Odds ratio with 95% confidence intervals and P value was calculated to determine the strength of association and to evaluate statistical significance.ResultOut of 410 participants, about 59.8% with [95% CI (54.8–68.8%)] and 49.5% with [95% CI (44.5–54.5%)] had good knowledge and favorable attitude towards patents confidentiality respectively. Being male (AOR = 1.63, 95% CI [1.03–2.59]), taking training on medical ethics (AOR = 1.73, 95% CI = [1.11–2.70]), facing ethical dilemmas (AOR = 3.07, 95% CI [1.07–8.79]) were significantly associated factors for health professional knowledge towards patients’ confidentiality. Likewise, taking training on medical ethics (AOR = 2.30, 95% CI [1.42–3.72]), having direct contact with the patients (AOR = 3.06, 95% CI [1.12–8.34]), visiting more patient (AOR = 4.38, 95% CI [2.46–7.80]), and facing ethical dilemma (AOR = 3.56, 95% CI [1.23–10.26]) were significant factors associated with attitude of health professionals towards patient confidentiality.ConclusionThe findings of this study revealed that health professionals have a limited attitude towards patient confidentiality but have relatively good knowledge. Providing a continuing medical ethics training package for health workers before joining the hospital and in between the working time could be recommended to enhance health professionals’ knowledge and attitude towards patient confidentiality. (shrink)

To enhance efforts against plagiarism, a deeper understanding of its various aspects is essential. This cross-sectional questionnaire study assessed the knowledge, attitudes, subjective norms, and self-reported plagiarism practices among health researchers in Egypt and Lebanon. A validated questionnaire was distributed to postgraduate students and faculty members across 15 universities through personal emails and health researcher-specific social media platforms. Out of 283 respondents, the mean knowledge score was 14.8 ± 3.7 out of a possible 27.0, indicating moderate (...) knowledge of plagiarism. Attitudes toward plagiarism were moderately permissive, with an average score of 62.2 ± 10.9, out of a maximum of 90.0. Subjective norms received a moderate score of 33.6 ± 6.7, where a favorable score should be low (10–23) suggesting that participants perceive society as disapproving of plagiarism and believe its prevalence is low. The mean self-reported Plagiarism Severity Score (PSS) was 4.1 ± 3.6, reflecting a low level of self-reported plagiarism, with a maximum possible score of 18. Multivariable analysis revealed a negative correlation between subjective norms and the PSS (β = −0.194, CI [−0.196: −0.010]). This finding is counterintuitive, as one would typically expect that a lower subjective norms score (indicating stronger disapproval of plagiarism), would correlate with fewer acts of plagiarism. One possible explanation for this result is the presence of negative perceptions of organizational justice—such as feelings of being unfairly treated—which might lead to higher rates of self-reported research misconduct. We recommend that universities in the Arab Middle East region develop research ethics training programs that include responsible conduct in research. However, it is essential for academic leaders to assess and address the research integrity climate within their institutions, as organizational injustice could undermine the effectiveness of these educational efforts. (shrink)

Biotechnology and genomic innovation are seen as increasingly important for achieving public health goals in Africa. In particular, vaccines based on advances in genomic technology are deemed vital in the fight against HIV/aids. Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) provide a collaborative mechanism to ensure these vaccines are developed when the private sector lacks incentives to develop these products. These partnerships provide new mechanisms for transferring the knowledge required to ensure vaccine development occurs as quickly and efficiently as possible. One such (...) accine partnership is the South African AIDS Vaccine Initiative (SAAVI). This has been successful in ensuring 'value added' (benefit gained by taking part) is created for those involved particularly in the area of intangible value added determinants of collaboration and knowledge capacity. This paper outlines the results of a case study of SAAVI and argues that it provides evidence of a need to strengthen our understanding of the linkage between wider conceptual 'systems' of innovation and health. In particular, it espouses the usefulness of 'Systems of Innovation' thinking as a means to ensure that more specific focus is placed on process outputs such as collaboration and knowledge capacity. This will ensure that necessary knowledge flow is transferred between those working in the vaccine project for more efficient and effective operations. The research also raises questions about the possibility of such case studies highlighting areas of attention that need addressing if greater linkage is to occur between innovation and health at a wider health research policy level. (shrink)

The knowledge and information systems (KIS) perspective arose from reflections on agricultural development. In the health sector, it is not quite as common to think in terms of KIS. Yet in this complex field, in which health education and promotion play increasingly important roles, the KIS perspective might be very useful. In this article, the authors attempt to apply ideas about KIS and knowledge management to health, by paying attention to the historical development, especially of (...) public health, and by exploring the contribution these ideas could make to the field. Some of the observations made in this attempt are: upstream information flows often are developed poorly, interaction and exchange among the different KIS parties require ongoing stimulation, in special projects and complex communication situations, a system-integrator is needed. (shrink)

Undertaking engagement in public health research is ethically essential. There is a growing emphasis on practicing engagement as the co‐construction of knowledge, which goes beyond other common forms of engagement in health research practice: consulting and informing. Taking such an approach means researchers jointly construct knowledge with research users and beneficiaries; all parties design and conduct research together and share decision‐making power. This article makes the normative argument that such engagement is necessary to achieve the foundational (...) moral aims of public health research—building relations of equality and addressing the health needs of those considered disadvantaged—which reflect the field's underlying commitment to social justice. It next identifies and discusses three ways in which co‐constructing knowledge advances those moral aims: by facilitating self‐determination, supporting individuals’ right to research, and maximizing social knowledge to address cognitive and epistemic injustice. Objections to the arguments presented in the article are then articulated and defended against. (shrink)

This study formulates a conception of knowledge in interactive practice disciplines such as education and health care and clarifies different types of knowledge in these disciplines. Focus is on the relationship between practical and theoretical knowledge. Four theses are discussed: (1) the role of knowledge in an interactive practice is to guide practice; (2) different types of knowledge in an interactive practice consist of value-knowledge, factual knowledge and procedural knowledge, parts of (...) which are unarticulated, parts articulated; (3) science is a way of articulating and creating knowledge that can be used as internal action determinants in the practice concerned; and (4) theories in an interactive practice can have both a theoretical and a practical purpose but the theoretical purpose is also indirectly linked to the practical. (Author/JD). (shrink)

Since 1984, the idea of health equity has proliferated throughout public health discourse with little mainstream critique for its variability and distance from its original articulation signifying social transformation and a commitment to social justice. In the years since health equity’s emergence and proliferation, it has taken on a seemingly endless range of invocations and deployments, but it most often translates into proactive and apolitical discourse and practice. In Margaret Whitehead’s influential characterization, achieving health equity requires (...) determining what is inequitable by examining and judging the causes of inequalities in the context of what is going on in the rest of society. However, it also remains unclear how or if public health actors examine and judge the causes of health inequality. In this article, we take the concept of health equity itself as an object of study and consider the ways in which its widespread deployment has entailed a considerable emptying of its semantic and political content. We point toward equity’s own discursive productivity as well as the quantifying imperative embedded within evidentiary norms that govern knowledge making, and performance management regimes that govern public health practices. Under current conditions of knowledge making and performance evaluation, a range of legitimate action and inaction is produced at the same time that more socially transformative action is legitimately curtailed—not merely by politics, but by the rules of the field in which public health actors work. Ultimately, meaningful progress on a normative ethical idea like health equity will require both substantial philosophical content and an analysis of what is going on in the rest of society. (shrink)

The epistemological status of health science, natural science, and clinical knowledge is explored. It is shown that ‘health science’, a term increasingly used in association with the clinical knowledge of the therapies, nursing, and other health occupations, is not fully a science in the sense of the natural sciences. It is rather a hybrid which relates applications of natural science, behavioral science, and the humanities to problems in health. The same may be said of (...) clinical knowledge which entails, as essentials, humanistic considerations involving the personal concerns of the patient, in addition to the more evident external aspects of diagnosis and treatment. The recent introduction of the term ‘health science’ reflects scientism in its approach to health issues. It also reflects confusion about the nature of clinical knowledge. Keywords: health science, clinical knowledge, natural science, behavioral science, humanism CiteULike Connotea Del.icio.us What's this? (shrink)

Any system for the protection of intellectual property rights (IPRs) has three main kinds of distributive effects. It will determine or influence: (a) the types of objects that will be developed and for which IPRs will be sought; (b) the differential access various people will have to these objects; and (c) the distribution of the IPRs themselves among various actors. What this means to the area of pharmaceutical research is that many urgently needed medicines will not be developed at all, (...) that the existing medicines will not be suitable for countries with a precarious health infrastructure or not target the disease variety that is prevalent in poorer regions. Such effects are commonly captured under the rubric of the “10/90 gap” in biomedical research. High prices will also restrict access to medicines as well endanger compliance to treatment schemes. IPRs are mainly held by multinational corporations situated in the developed world, which not only raises egalitarian concerns, but also severely limits the possibilities of companies in poorer countries to realize improvements on existing inventions, as they cannot financially afford to secure freedom to operate, which systematically shrinks the number of potential innovators. Those inequities lead to an enormous burden for the global poor and since no institution is willing to assume the responsibility to fulfil the right to health and the corresponding right of access to essential medicines, we have to analyse alternatives or additions to the actual intellectual property regimes in order to create new incentives to fill this gap. (shrink)

In this paper we aim to discuss a theoretical explanation for the positive relationship between patients’ knowledge and their trust in healthcare personnel. Our approach is based on John Dewey’s notion of continuity. This notion entails that the individual’s experiences are interpreted as interrelated to each other, and that knowledge is related to future experience, not merely a record of the past. Furthermore, we apply Niklas Luhmann’s theory on trust as a way of reducing complexity and enabling action. (...) Anthony Giddens’ description and analysis of the high modern society provides a frame for discussing the preconditions for patient-healthcare personnel interaction. High modernity is dominated by expert systems and demands trust in these. We conclude that patient knowledge and trust in healthcare personnel is related because both knowledge and trust are future- and action-oriented concepts. The traits of high modernity provides opportunities and challenges as the personnel can and must perform discretion. This discretion must be made in a context where knowledge is considered uncertain and preliminary. (shrink)

Background and Aims: The COVID-19 pandemic has led to radical and unexpected changes in everyday life, and it is plausible that people’s psychophysical health has been affected. This study examined the relationship between COVID-19 related knowledge and mental health in a Croatian sample of participants.MethodsAn online survey was conducted from March 18 until March 23, 2020, and a total of 1244 participant responses were collected. Measures included eight questions regarding biological features of the virus, symptoms, and prevention, (...) the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, and Optimism-Pessimism Scale. According to the answers given on the questions on COVID-19 related knowledge, participants were divided in two groups: informed and uninformed on each question. They were then compared in the expressed levels of anxiety, depression, pessimism, and optimism. Full vs. partial mediation models with optimism/pessimism as a mediator in the relationship between anxiety/depression and the accuracy of responses for questions about handwashing and ways of transmission were estimated.ResultsParticipants who responded correctly on the question about handwashing had higher levels of anxiety, depression, and pessimism than those participants whose answer was incorrect, while participants who answered correctly on the question about the percentage of patients who develop serious breathing problems had higher levels of depression than those who answered incorrectly. Lower levels of anxiety and pessimism were observed in the participants who answered correctly about ways of transmission. Higher levels of pessimism were found in participants who scored incorrectly on questions about the efficiency of antibiotics, most common symptoms, and the possibility of being infected by asymptomatic carriers. Higher levels of knowledge about handwashing were predicted by higher levels of anxiety and pessimism. Higher levels of knowledge about ways of transmission were predicted by lower levels of anxiety and lower levels of pessimism. The examined relationships between anxiety/depression and knowledge were mediated by pessimism.ConclusionThe findings of this study suggest that knowledge about COVID-19 may be useful to reduce anxiety and depression, but it must be directed to the promotion of health behaviors and to the recognition of fake news. (shrink)

Can the institutional systems that prepare Black nurse researchers question the ways their systemic pathways have impacted health equity knowledge development in nursing? We invite our readers to keep this question in mind and engage with our conversation as Black nurse researchers, scholars, educators, and clinicians. The purpose of our conversation, and this article, is to explore the transactional impact of knowledge development pathways and Black faculty retention pathways on the state of health equity knowledge (...) in nursing today. Over a series of conversations, we discuss the research exploitation of communities of color, deficit research funding, knowledge capitalization, the marginalization of diversity as a continuous process, a lack of sociocultural authority, and our thoughts on solutions. We conclude by using the wisdom of a generation to answer our initial question. (shrink)

Quality of democratic arrangements does matter. This kind of conceptual breakthrough has been made through painfully engagement with the nonphilosophical area of inquiry arisen by the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has dramatically emphasized that health is a highly political domain. No surprise then that it made possible to challenge common thought about democratic procedures in political theory that considers procedure-independent standards suspicious. Therefore it is fair to state that the COVID-19 pandemic has taken the quality of democratic outcomes back (...) on center stage in the debate in political theory, which has been dominated by fair proceduralism’s claim not to refer to any procedure-independent standards of good political decisions. Procedural values have traditionally been seen as a defining element of fair deliberation and essential for democracy. They have been extolled in social choice theory that claims that democracy does not exhibit any particular disposition to lead to good or just political arrangements. They are the focus of attention in Jürgen Habermas’ procedural rationality, though philosophers are now more skeptical about the divorce between procedures and substantive standards. Overall, issues surrounding the topic of ensuring citizens’ health make the topic politically central and philosophically interesting for epistemic theories and impartial proceduralism theories of democracy alike. The aim of this paper is to justify the legitimacy and authority of public health policies on the basis of arguments that do not simply are a matter of their being democratic. In the first part, I want to display and criticize the idea that proceduralism’s not getting one’s hands dirty with the substance of decisions and remaining neutrally adherent only to procedures is untenable in the present case. Having criticized democratic theories that want to restrict themselves to purely procedural values, in the second part I will focus on the idea of knowledge and make explicit its characters of being practical and shared. Eventually, it will help to have one example. M-Health will show that many valuable insights would be incompatible with the restrictions of the proceduralism. Philosophical consideration of health will combine epistemic issues with political ones triggered by technology and sharpened by the COVID-19 pandemic. (shrink)

A growing body of research highlights that adults with autism spectrum disorder have poor health outcomes, yet effective health interventions are lacking for this population. While mobile health applications demonstrate potential for promoting physical activity in adults with ASD, scientific evidence for supporting this tool’s long-term effectiveness on PA behavior change remains inconclusive. This study aimed to provide the latest information on PA research and the prospective role of mobile health applications for promoting PA in adults (...) with ASD. A literature review demonstrated that a few available studies show contradictory results regarding PA levels in adults with ASD, and behavior change techniques and gamification-guided mobile health applications can be promising tactics to leverage autism’s strengths and increase PA in these individuals. Optimizing design decisions based on needs analysis and user feedback is crucial to identifying and developing a sustainable mobile health intervention for PA promotion in adults with ASD. (shrink)

One of the core problems of scientific research authorship is honorary authorship. It violates the ethical principle of clear and appropriate assignment of scientific research contributions. The prevalence of honorary authorship worldwide is alarmingly high across various research disciplines. As a result, many academic institutions and publishers were trying to explore ways to overcome this unethical research practice. The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) recommended criteria for authorship as guidance for researchers submitting manuscripts to biomedical Journals. However, despite (...) the ICMJE guidelines, honorary authorship is still significantly present across various health research disciplines. The aim of this study was to explore the perceptions and knowledge of health care researchers towards honorary authorship according to the ICMJE guidelines across different health care fields in Jordan, which to our knowledge was never explored before. Data from an electronic survey that was distributed among researchers working in different healthcare fields across several major universities in Jordan, revealed that most of the respondents were assistant professors working mainly in the schools of Medicine and Pharmacy. The majority of the respondents (65.5%) were not aware of the ICMJE authorship guidelines. And, around 37% reported the inclusion of an honorary author, in which the most common non-authorship task reported by 73% of the respondents was reviewing the manuscript. Our findings emphasize the need for national academic and research institutions to address the issue of authorship in their educational programs and internal policies. (shrink)

As the largest labour flow in human history, the recent rise in migration in China has opened up unprecedented opportunities for millions of Chinese to rearrange their lives. At the same time, this process has also posed great challenges to Chinese migrants, especially female migrants, who not only face a bias against ‘outsiders’ but also have a greater need for reproductive health-related services in their migratory destinations. Based on data collected via multiple sources in Shanghai, China’s largest metropolis, this (...) study profiles the changing characteristics of female migrants, presents data on self-reported symptoms of reproductive health-related problems and knowledge on reproductive health issues, compares maternal and child health measures between migrants and local residents, and examines factors related to reproductive health knowledge and migrants’ access to health care in urban china. Results of this study show a relatively low level of self-reported reproductive health problems among female migrants, coupled with a relatively high level of ignorance in knowledge related to STD. both self-reported health status and knowledge of reproductive health are related to migrants’ educational attainment and length of stay in the urban destination. This study also finds ample evidence that female migrants’ access to urban health care is limited by a number of institutional barriers. (shrink)

Voronka critically analyzes the risk of strategic essentialism while considering ‘lived experience’ as expert knowledge. Although strategic essentialism seems to be a useful category to create political solidarity among a marginalized group, it also holds the risk of essentializing experiences, and thus works against the same premises from where critical questions against dominant knowledge systems begin. While recognizing this risk, Voronka also discusses its contextual usage while dealing with a constituency—the survivors of the mental health system—that is (...) fragile. In this commentary, I bring a few points for further discussion. Does lived experience create ‘expert’ knowledge? Whose experiences are we... (shrink)

Purpose Health misinformation poses severe risks to people’s health decisions and outcomes. A great deal of research in this area has focused on debunking misinformation and found limited effects of correctives after misinformation exposure. The research on prebunking strategies has been inadequate. Most has focused on forewarning and enhancing literacy skills and knowledge to recognize misinformation. Part of the reason for the inadequacy could be due to the challenges in conceptualizing and measuring knowledge. This study intends (...) to fill this gap and examines various types of knowledge, including subjective knowledge, cancer literacy, persuasion knowledge and media literacy. This study aims to understand how knowledge may moderate the effect of misinformation exposure on misbeliefs. Design/methodology/approach An online experiment with a basic experimental design (misinformation exposure: health misinformation vs factual health message) was conducted. The authors measured and tested the moderating role of different types of knowledge (subjective knowledge, cancer literacy, persuasion knowledge and media literacy) separately to improve the understanding of their role in combatting online health misinformation. Findings This study found that a higher level of cancer literacy and persuasion knowledge helped people identify misinformation and prevented them from being persuaded by it. A higher level of subjective knowledge, however, reduced the recognition of misinformation, thereby increasing the likelihood of being persuaded by it. Media literacy did not moderate the mediation path. Originality/value This study differentiates the role different types of knowledge may have played in moderating the influence of health misinformation. It contributes to a strategic development of interventions that better prepare people against the influence of health misinformation. (shrink)

Various branches of Complementary and Integrative Medicine (CIM) are growing fast in Western Pennsylvania, similar to other parts of the United States and the world. Little or no knowledge is available about what healthcare providers know and how they think and act regarding CIM. Such knowledge is important for planning for education about CIM and its ethical ramifications for future generations of healthcare providers. In this study, after a qualitative study and literature review, a questionnaire was developed to (...) assess the knowledge, attitude, and use of CIM among health-majoring undergraduate students of PennWest University. The content validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by a panel of experts, and its reliability was assessed by the test-retest method. The weighted agreements for individual questions ranged from 87% to 95%, with kappa ranging from 0.57 to 0.81. The Cronbach’s Alpha for the scale was 0.90. the questionnaire was completed by health-major students of PennWest University. To analyze the collected data, we used the Student’s t test and the chi-square test with a significant level of 0.05. The participants showed high percentages of familiarity with and use of CIM. Also, they expressed a favorable attitude toward CIM. They also agreed with the necessity of more education about CIM to be included in the curricula. This study concludes that there is a need to incorporate more education on CIM into the curricula of health-related disciplines, with a special focus on the ethical aspects, including the mandate for avoiding untested remedies and following evidence-based clinical practice. (shrink)

Approaching mental health on a global scale with particular reference to low- and mid-income countries raises issues concerning the disregard of the local context and values and the imposition of values characteristic of the Global North. Seeking a philosophical viewpoint to surmount these problems, the present paper argues for a value-laden framework for psychiatry with the specific incorporation of value pluralism, particularly in relation to the Global South context, while also emphasizing personal values such as the choice of treatment. (...) In sketching out this framework, the paper aims to overcome the clash between universalism and relativism about psychiatric categories by focusing on how overlaps between cultures can contribute to ontology-building. A case study analyzing ethnopsychiatric research in the context of South India will illustrate the proposed view, while also pointing out avenues for further research on the causal efficacy of local shared beliefs about mental disorder. If approaches across different traditions and theoretical frames are shown to work in treating similar ailments, causal connections appear to cut across the different ontologies. Ethnopsychiatry would play a central role in such research, namely in disclosing the variables and mechanisms at work within the local approaches. (shrink)

The predominant use of junk food in our societies is continuously held responsible for the obese body physiques and overweight among the kids and adolescents. The current supportive environments where organic foods are limited, and new processed foods have been brought to the market with more variant tastes and acceptability for the kids and adolescents that have diverged their eating patterns. It has significantly contributed to the health issues and growth discrepancies of the users. However, the awareness of the (...) food contents is an important milestone for understanding the risks associated with the usage of junk foods. A quantitative approach has been used in this study to measure the effect of perceived severity, vulnerability and fear on the junk food eating behaviors and ultimately on the obesity. The moderating role of product knowledge hiding has also been measured on the relationship of junk food eating and obesity. Structural equation modeling is used using the software Smart-PLS for measuring the hypothesis with a sample size of 228 selected through purposive sampling. The sample consisted of kids and adolescents who were reached on purpose for data collection. The current study has explored the role of perceived severity, vulnerability and the fear of using junk foods which have been found as a negative effect on junk food eating behavior which is positively associated with obesity among the kids and adolescents. The result of study shows that perceived threat has a negative effect on the junk food eating behavior of the adolescents. However, the positive relationship of junk food eating behavior with obesity can be decreased if the information about the products is not hidden. This study will be useful for making the consumers aware of the product knowledge hiding of the junk food usage. Moreover, it will help the users in creating understanding of risks allied with the use of junk food which may be addressed in order to avoid obesity issues in the kids and adolescents globally. (shrink)

Commercial food health branding is a challenging branch of marketing because it might, at the same time, promote healthy living and be commercially viable. However, the power to influence individuals’ health behavior and overall health status makes it crucial for marketing professionals to take into account the ethical dimensions of health branding: this article presents a conceptual analysis of potential ethical problems in health branding. The analysis focuses on ethical concerns related to the application of (...) three health brand elements (functional claims, process claims, and health symbols) as well as a number of general concerns that apply to health branding as such. Being a pioneering analysis, this article advances the academic understanding of health branding and provides practitioners with knowledge of important concerns to take into account when marketing health brands. (shrink)

Several countries maintain universal health coverage, which implies responsibility to organize delivery formats of healthcare services and products for citizens. In Brazil, the health system has a principle of universal access for more than 30 years, but many deficiencies remain and the country observes a day practice for those seeking judicial decisions to determine provision of healthcare.

Due to the rapid advance of the pandemic caused by COVID-19, several countries perceived that human and material resources would be insufficient to meet the demand of infected patients. The aim of this study is to analyze the knowledge of health professionals working in the pandemic about the application of ethical criteria in decision-making in situations of resource scarcity. This is a cross-sectional, descriptive, and quantitative survey study, conducted from June to December 2020, with health professionals working (...) in the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil. We applied a questionnaire to assess the professionals’ knowledge about ethical criteria in decision-making in the allocation of scarce resources during the pandemic, containing 14 questions and possible score from 0 to 70, which was developed by researchers from documents and protocols validated by organizations from various countries, available in the first months of the pandemic, a sociodemographic characterization questionnaire and a self-assessment questionnaire regarding knowledge about bioethics. A total of 197 health professionals participated in the study, 37.6% of whom were nurses and 22.8% of whom were physicians, working in the Family Health Unit (28.4%) with a degree at the level of specialization (46.2%). Moreover, (9.5%) of nurses, (18.2%) of dental surgeons and (24.4%) of physicians reported that they have no prior knowledge about bioethics. Physicians and hospital workers scored higher on the knowledge assessment questionnaire. The mean score of the participants was 45.4 (SD = 7.2). Investments in training and professional education in the field of health focused on Bioethics are necessary, considering models and ethical theories that help professionals, managers and society to better position themselves in the face of pandemic contexts. (shrink)

Introduction: Globally, vitamin D deficiency is one of the most common deficiencies, affecting nearly half the world's population. The objective of this survey was to assess and compare the knowledge about vitamin D and the perceived state of health in Emirati and international tourist female students in Dubai, UAE. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study that took place in universities in Dubai, UAE. This survey consisted of 17 multiple choice questions. The first part of the survey assessed levels (...) of supplementation, diet and UV exposure. Another section evaluated the participants’ self-assessed state of health regarding vitamin D testing, symptoms related to vitamin D deficiency and general welbeing. The collected data were statistically analyzed using SPSS statistics for windows version 26.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL). Statistical significance was set at P<0.05. Results: 105 respondents were Emiratis and 65 were international students. The average age was 21, with an average BMI 23.3. Almost one-third of each group reported using Vitamin D supplements once weekly. The majority of both groups reported rarely getting tanned. Almost all participants reported regular consumption of Vitamin-D rich foods. In both groups, more than half reported consuming milk and cheese regularly and up to one-third reported consuming fish in a regular manner. Although more than half of the students rated their health as good; more than two-thirds reported experiencing muscle pain; only half reported having their blood Vitamin D levels measured once; half reported experiencing problems with concentration and more than three-quarters reported experiencing bad mood in the past month. The prevalence of these symptoms was almost similar across different categories of vitamin D supplementation, tanning habits, dietary intake, or nationality. No statistically significant differences were noted between the 2 groups. Conclusion: more Emirati students were aware of the association between vitamin D and osteoporosis than International tourist students (40% vs. 21.9%, respectively; p<0.05). On the other hand, both groups had lower knowledge about the relationship between vitamin D deficiency and depression, Rheumatoid Arthritis and Hypertension, and the optimal vitamin D level; however, no statistically significant differences were noted regarding this knowledge of Emiratis and international students. (shrink)

It will be a valuable resource for practitioners in health and welfare as well as students in health and social science disciplines."--BOOK JACKET.

La gestión del conocimiento es un proceso relacionado con la producción, transmisión y utilización del conocimiento y su pertinencia para el desempeño organizacional; en la actualidad han aparecido diversidad de modelos que prescriben su configuración. El presente artículo describe el modelo que fundamenta teórica y metodológicamente la aplicación de la gestión del conocimiento en el Centro de Desarrollo de las Ciencias Sociales y Humanísticas en Salud. Esta entidad dedicada a la producción y transmisión del conocimiento científico en estas áreas de (...) conocimiento, no contaba con un modelo que permitiera estructurar el funcionamiento del proceso de su construcción y difusión en su interior y hacia el contexto. El modelo propuesto atiende la especificidad de los procesos de la entidad, y guía teórica y metodológicamente los flujos de información y conocimientos, las redes de actores presentes y los procesos de gestión de conocimiento que se integran en la dinámica de la organización. Knowledge management is a process related to the production, transmission and use of knowledge and its relevance to the organizational performance; nowadays there are several models that prescribe its configuration. This article describes a model that theoretically and methodologically bases the implementation of knowledge management on the Centre for the development of social and humanistic sciences in Health. This entity devoted to the production and transmission of scientific knowledge in these areas of knowledge, did not have a model that allow to structure the operation of its construction and diffusion process from inside and towards the context. The proposed model deals with specificities of the entity´ s processes, and theoretically and methodologically leads flows of information and knowledge, networks of actors and knowledge management processes that are integrated into the dynamics of the organization. (shrink)

Forlagets beskrivelse: Informative, analytical and stimulating, this book examines the relationship between professional knowledge and clinical practice.Biography.

As clinical ethics consultants move toward professionalization, the process of certifying individual consultants or accrediting programs will be discussed and debated. With certification, some entity must be established or ordained to oversee the standards and procedures. If the process evolves like other professions, it seems plausible that it will eventually include a written examination to evaluate the core knowledge competencies that individual practitioners should possess to meet peer practice standards. The American Society for Bioethics and Humanities has published core (...) knowledge competencies for many years that are accepted by experts as the prevailing standard. Probably any written examination will be based upon the ASBH core knowledge competencies. However, much remains to be done before any examination may be offered. In particular, it seems likely that a recognized examining board must create and validate examination questions and structure the examination so as to establish meaningful, defensible parameters after dealing with such challenging questions as: Should the certifying examination be multiple choice or short-answer essay? How should the test be graded? What should the pass rate be? How may the examination be best administered? To advance the field of health care ethics consultation, thought leaders should start to focus on the written examination possibilities, to date unaddressed carefully in the literature. Examination models—both objective and written—must be explored as a viable strategy about how the field of health care ethics consultations can grow toward professionalization. (shrink)